MOBILE, Alabama -- A jury ruled today that Michael Berry should be executed for shooting and killing his estranged wife in front of her four children, a crime that was captured on security video.

Berry’s future now lies with Circuit Judge Michael Youngpeter, who has the ultimate sentencing decision.

The defense says they plan to ask the judge to override the jury’s ruling and impose life in prison without parole instead at a hearing in October.

The jury found Berry, 45, guilty of capital murder for shooting Wendy Stevens six times as she sat in her SUV parked at an ATM in west Mobile on May 11, 2010. Her four children — ages 13, 11, 9 and 3 — were in the vehicle and witnessed the shooting. The youngest two boys were Berry’s children.

As the jury foreman read the decision in court, Berry didn’t show any obvious reaction while he stood and looked forward. Berry’s family members in court declined to be interviewed.

District Attorney Ashley Rich said the jury’s decision was the correct one, and she will ask the judge to uphold it.

“Nothing about this case has been easy,” said Rich, who choked back tears during her closing arguments to the jury. “I’m sure it was very difficult for the jury to make this decision.”

Stevens’ family members declined to be interviewed following the verdict announcement.

“They loved their daughter and their sister very much,” Rich said.

The key piece of evidence in the trial were two video clips taken from two security cameras at the bank ATM at Schillinger and Cottage Hill roads. A camera inside the ATM offered an up-close view of Stevens being shot six times while her 11-year-old daughter watched in the front passenger seat.

An overhead camera recorded Berry wearing a bright orange baseball cap walk around the front of the SUV, firing shots through the windows. He fired the final shots at point-blank range through the driver’s side window.

Lawyer Sid Harrell said that in trying convince a jury to vote for life in prison, “it was just very hard to overcome the video.

The day after the shooting, Berry was due to appear in court and face possible jail time for violating a restraining order that Stevens had requested against him. She had also filed for divorce.

The defense had argued to a jury that Berry was under extreme stress. He faced $30,000 in credit card debt and bankruptcy and was working three jobs at the U.S. Postal Service, a cleaning service and Outback steakhouse. After moving out of his family’s house, he was sleeping in his car at times, barely ate and had lost 70 pounds in the months before the shooting, his lawyers said.

“He thought he was losing his family,“ said lawyer Ashley Cameron. “It’s not an excuse. It’s not a defense. It’s a reason to spare his life.“

In closing arguments, Rich said he deserves to be executed because the crime was especially heinous, atrocious and cruel as defined by state law.

Berry had parked his truck on front of Stevens’ SUV, giving her no place to drive away and escape.

“She’s defenseless, her babies are defenseless — all four of them,” Rich told the jury.

Youngpeter scheduled a sentencing hearing for Oct. 12. He said he will announce his decision two weeks later on Oct. 26.